Re: HELP: Regex pattern matching

If the separators are always the same length, then you can use the following: $new_str = preg_replace("/(=-){5}(.*)-{10}/sU","",$str); Where 5 is how many times the =- pattern repeats, and 10 is how many times the - character repeats. Hope that helps. ---John Holmes... ----- Original Message ----- From: <af@ax-im.com> To: <php-general@lists.php.net> Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2003 6:44 AM Subject: Re: [PHP] HELP: Regex pattern matching > Hmmm... I was about to reply with a simple solution, but there's a problem with it that I can't explain. Assuming the text is in $str... > > I can't get preg_replace to match a newline at the end of a pattern. If I use... > > $str = preg_replace('/\n=.+--\n/sU', '', $str); > > ...it matches nothing, but if I put a tag character at the end of the dashes, e.g. > > --------------------------------x > > ...then use... > > $str = preg_replace('/\n=.+--x/sU', '', $str); > > ...it works perfectly. I'm not sure why the pattern doesn't care about the first newline, but it chokes on the second one. Any thoughts? > > Thanks, > Alex > > > > > I have an ASCII file which has multiple blocks of text I want to clear. The > > scheme is as follows: > > > > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > > line 1 Everything between the separators, > > line 2 including the separators > > line 3 I want to clear from the text file > > line 4 > > ----------------------------------------------------- > > > > This text I want to keep > > > > There are infinite number of blocks surrounded by exactly the same > > separators. > > So, I guess I need to clear everything between the starting "=" and the > > ending "-". > > > > Can anyone suggest a regex pattern string that would help me accomplish > > that? > > > > Thank you all guys in advance! > > > > Nasko > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php >